10 Limiting Beliefs That are Holding You Back in Life…. and How to Change Them

Human beings are amazing! We are the only species on earth with the capability to turn thoughts into reality. We dream. We dream amazing dreams. We create amazing things from those dreams. We make the impossible possible from those dreams. And here’s the thing. All of us are endowed with this innate genetic ability to create something out of nothing. There is no limit to our capacity to create, except our imagination and any limiting beliefs that hold us back in life. It was not intended for humans to be poor, to struggle financially or to live a life of quiet desperation. We exist to be great, to achieve great things. It is within our genetic makeup to create, to produce, to innovate and to learn from our mistakes. We were intended to live a life of abundance; to be happy and successful in life.

Why is it then that 95% are unhappy and struggle financially in life? Why does poverty perpetuate itself from one generation to the next? Why do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?

The answer is our beliefs. Our beliefs can either create wealth or create poverty. If you believe you are smart, you are right. If you believe you are dumb, you are right. If you believe life is your oyster, you are right. If you believe life is a struggle, you are right. What we believe determines who we become in life.

Our beliefs are stored deep in our subconscious mind. The subconscious part of our brain makes up 80% of our brain mass. The other 20% is the conscious part of our brain. This 80% controls our autonomic system, directs our behavior, stores our habits, it is where our emotions reside and warehouses our beliefs. Most thoughts created by our conscious mind are never allowed into our subconscious mind. It’s intentional. Every day we are bombarded with data taken in by our senses. The subconscious has no choice but to filter and limit the data it takes in. This is why only emotionalized thoughts are allowed in. The subconscious recognizes only emotionalized thoughts. It ignores all others. Emotionalized thoughts are like computer software coding for the subconscious. They reprogram our subconscious, which then goes to work to alter our lives by altering our behavior. Our subconscious mind communicates with our conscious mind through intuition, hunches, the voice inside our head etc. Beliefs represent emotionalized thought programming the subconscious mind has accepted. They represent mini computer programs; mini apps. If you want to change your circumstances in life you need to start by changing your beliefs and in order to do that you need to create positive emotionalized thoughts and avoid negative emotionalized thoughts.

Each one of these limiting beliefs is an individual mini computer program which alters your behavior in a negative way. These limiting beliefs are responsible for the life you have. If you are unhappy and want to change your circumstances in life you need to replace these limiting beliefs with positive, uplifting beliefs. It can be done. Here are some powerful strategies that will reprogram your subconscious and completely transform your life. If you follow these strategies for 30 days the reprogramming will stick and you will shift your mindset from negative to positive.

The Five Year Letter

The Five Year Letter is a lot of fun. It gets the imagination going and when you’re done you will feel immediately better about yourself. Kids particularly enjoy this activity. Here’s how it works:

Go into the future five years. Imagine it is five years from now and you are writing a letter to yourself explaining what your life is like five years from now. In a perfect world what would you like your life to look like five years from now? You want to paint a picture of your life five years from now that is the perfect, ideal life. It is the life you would want to have if you could snap your fingers today. Describe in your letter where you live, what kind of house you live in, what car you drive, what you do for a living, how much money you make etc. You describe what you’ve done the past five years; the goals you’ve accomplished and the dreams that have come true. It is essentially, a blueprint for your future life.

Write Your Obituary

This exercise forces you to evaluate your current life and gives you an opportunity to re-write your script for the future. What would you like your perfect obituary to say? How would you like the world to remember you? Include all of the things you would like to accomplish in your life. Don’t skimp. List all of the Big Ass Dreams you realized in your life. Your obituary should make you in awe of yourself. Really lay it on. Let it pour forth your greatness and success and paint a picture of the person you would like to be. Like the Five Year Letter, let this Obituary become the business plan of your life; your future you.

Make a List of Your Wishes and Dreams

List every wish or dream you would like to come true. Then reduce it to the top five wishes or dreams you would like to come true over the next ten years.

Create Goals around Your Wishes and Dreams

Goals help us to focus on accomplishing our dreams. 70% of the wealthy in my study set long-term goals. Goals help bring clarity to what we are trying to accomplish in life. Goals work like a magnifying glass works in focusing the sunlight. Goals help focus our activities. The anatomy of a goal is similar to the anatomy of an artichoke. The artichoke represents the wish, the leaves are the variables and the heart is the action that is required – your goal. In order to get to the heart of the artichoke you need to peel back the leaves. Identifying the goal inside your wish is no different. You need to peel back the leaves of your wish to get to the heart of the wish – the action goals required. Once you identify the actions required, you have your goals. The only remaining issue is whether or not you have the ability to perform the actions required.

There are four steps required in defining a goal:

Step #1 – Make a wish.

Step #2 – Define each variable of the wish.

Step #3 – Identify the specific activities or actions you must take in order for your wish to come true.

Step #4 – Is the goal 100% achievable?

Example:

At one of my small first Rich Habits training seminars many years ago, I was approached by a participant who was a very successful insurance agent. He confided in me that he had failed, for three consecutive years, to come close to achieving his goal of increasing his firm’s life insurance commissions by $100,000 a year. He came to my training session because he was about to give up on the goal when he stumbled upon my advertisement in the local paper. He realized now that the $100,000 goal was not a goal at all but a wish. And as I pointed out to him, “wishes don’t come true.” We met later in the week in an effort to peel the artichoke and find the goal inside his wish following my four step process:

Step #3 Action – Define daily actions or daily activities that are required in order to meet each variable.

Action = Make 10 prospecting calls per day.

Step #4 Achievability

Can you perform the activity? Can you make 10 calls per day, day in and day out? If the answer is yes, then you have your goal.

Create a Victory Log

This is a listing of all of your successes in life. Its purpose is put a stop to the negative self-criticism we all seem to engage in. It’s a tool to stop your conscious mind from beating you up and shifts your thinking from negative back to positive. Positive thinking attracts good things into your life by reprogramming your subconscious positively. Negative thinking attracts bad things into your life by reprogramming your subconscious negatively. So the Victory Log helps shift your thinking from negative to positive as you read through all of the successes in your life. It programs your subconscious to be success-focused and not failure-focused. It’s a psychological pat on the back and it works. Every time you screw up, pull out your Victory Log and begin reading. It will stop you from beating yourself up the rest of the day and prevent you from going negative. Mistakes and failures are nothing more than lessons to be learned. They are not a reflection of your incompetence, lack of education, or some character flaw. They are just things to learn from. The Victory Log help put mistakes and failures in their proper context and keeps you on the path of Prosperity Thinking.

Create Daily Affirmations around Your Goals

Affirmations need to be in the present tense and represent a future state of being. For example: “I am our company’s #1 salesman”. Affirmations only work when they are tied to your goals or main purpose in life.

Create a Vision Board

Your Vision Board is a visual representation of all of the the things you desire in life. Cut out and paste pictures to your Vision Board that represent the ideal house you would like to live in, the ideal car you drive, the ideal profession, the size of your bank account, places you would like to go on vacation, things you would like to do, people you would like to meet or become friends or do business with etc. Keep this Vision Board where you can see it and look at it in the morning just after waking up and at night, just before going to bed.

Meditate Once in the Morning

Sit in a chair and get comfortable.

Close your eyes.

Feel your eyes relax, then your whole head, then your neck, then your shoulders, then your chest, then your arms, then your waist, then your legs and then your feet.

Take thirty deep breathes and see the numbers in your head. Let all thoughts drift by one after the other.

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The content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. The information in this material is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation. Some of this material was developed and produced by FMG Suite to provide information on a topic that may be of interest. FMG Suite is not affiliated with the named representative, broker – dealer, state – or SEC – registered investment advisory firm. The opinions expressed and material provided are for general information, and should not be considered a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security.